The employee value proposition
Considering what your organisation offers employees beyond mere contractual obligations, is an essential part of recruiting and retaining staff
RECRUITMENT
Image: Istock
Gera Patel
Partner, Campbell Tickell
Issue: 63 | December 2022
We love a bit of jargon in HR – or as we are now meant to call it: people. I remember when I first came across the term ‘employee value proposition’ about 10 years ago and thought “well that won’t catch-on”. Most sensible people just use the short cut ‘T&Cs’ (for terms and conditions), and we all know what we mean by that.
But I have found myself increasingly reaching for the term employee value proposition (EVP) when talking to clients about their very material concerns with staff recruitment and retention in the current environment.
What is it?
So, just to clear up the definition, the CIPD states that EVP “describes what an organisation stands for, requires and offers as an employer”. The inclusion of “what the organisation stands for” means that it isn’t really a replacement for T&Cs. The latter tends to be a factual and functional list of the rights and responsibilities of staff (or maybe I should be using the phrase colleague?) and in effect forms part of the employee contract
But I think EVP introduces the idea of a psychological or emotional connection between employee and employer. It is the promise that organisations make to their staff (or potential staff) about how they are going to be valued, and that feels quite different and much less limited than a contractual obligation.
“The merry-go-round of people coming and going puts enormous financial strain on an organisation.”
Unique challenges
The cost-of-living crisis following so quickly on the tailcoats of the pandemic, and before that Brexit, has created a unique set of challenges for employers.
Finding the right people, getting them in at the right cost, hanging on to them – we are now much more alert to these issues. Our colleagues who run care organisations will say “welcome to my world”, but the universal spread of recruitment and retention issues means that all employers need to up their game.
You may not be using the language of EVP in your organisation, but if you are worried about recruitment and retention, you should definitely be considering it as a concept.
Not to do so, carries much greater risk these days, for example roles that you just can’t appoint to despite making incremental increases in pay or offering market supplements; high turnover with certain posts where the merry-go-round of people coming and going puts enormous financial strain on an organisation; and a frustration that projects can’t get going or keep stalling because of a lack of stability in key posts.
Not all about money
You may think you can’t afford to offer more to staff, but reviewing your EVP does not automatically mean a rise in costs. I often find good, even generous, employee offers that are described in old-fashioned and unappealing ways, so that staff don’t realise that the proposition is a very good one.
There are also myriad online providers that offer easy and value-for-money app-based solutions so staff can more actively engage with the EVP. There may be ways of differentiating the offer and creating choice within an existing portfolio. But just as importantly, there are those everyday interactions with staff, that inform how we make them feel and highlight their relationship to their employer.
A genuine focus on values (and behaviours) and commitment to a positive culture, is hugely influential in determining and maintaining a colleague’s loyalty to an organisation and commitment to their role.
Time to focus on colleagues too
We have come a long way in how we discuss what makes and keeps customers happy. We know that our customers are not one homogeneous group. They have diverse backgrounds, variable needs and aspirations and value different things in their engagement with an organisation. The diligent and intelligent use of data highlights that and has often been at the heart of ensuring sustained improvement in customer experience.
Forward-thinking employers know that these principles of customer engagement need to apply to our staff too. They are also people with different priorities, ambitions and dreams. Think of the EVP as a promise made to staff, with clarity on expectations for all. If you keep that promise it will help engender trust and engagement, which are increasingly valuable commodities in volatile markets and uncertain times.
